I’m trying to get this letter and the model release it’s written on to this nice couple. They live in a hand-built wooden house that floats in an eddy of the Apalachicola River. John and Patricia are some of the nicest people I’ve met, having shared Busch beer and fried catfish with me on both Apalachicola River paddles (2009 and 2013). I’m sure they don’t mind being a part of our film, but for due-diligence we need to get their signature on a model release. Hopefully then Georgia Public Broadcasting will air the film later this year.

This retroactive release effort is not ideal and not recommended for future documentary projects. We could have just gotten them as we went. Oh well, who, other than famous people, fugitives, or politicians, doesn’t like getting a hand-written letter complete with self-addressed-stamp-envelope?

Just last week I got a call from a Georgia area code and the man on the line said he was calling to talk to one of the men who floated the river last year and made a movie about it. I told him that was me and my brother. He sounded surprised, saying he thought this was a big company or something that was doing the film. He wanted to know the status of the film and I told him it was complete. The nice man had seen Michael floating down the river near McIntosh Reserve, south of Atlanta. He’d asked Michael where he was going and what he was doing. Michael told him as he floated by. And that was it. The man said he’s been thinking about it ever since and wants to see the movie. He said he’d rather have a DVD copy than a download online. So I sent him a hand-written letter, too, plus a DVD.

Stamped, stacked, and ready to mail. First shipment goes to Kickstarter supporters – thanks for your patience! But we’ll have plenty left. For now, email us to purchase a copy ($10.99). We’ll have them available for online purchase soon.

Each May, documentary filmmakers and several thousand viewers arrive in Telluride, Colorado, the country’s most beautiful dead-end town. The Mountainfilm festival’s three-day program distracts the visitors from the sublime natural amphitheater of cliffs and the last snowfields resisting the spring sun. Mountainfilm brings an international buffet of documentary films and morning coffee talks with mountain luminaries such as Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond, National Geographicphotographer Nevada Wier, and rock jock Alex Honnold. Each event feels like an intimate gathering among friends.

Memorial Day weekend marked my first visit to Mountainfilm. Or any film festival, for that matter. Who Owns Water, a film my brother Michael and I filmed and produced, was graciously accepted by the Telluride festival and supported by a 2013 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant. With print and photography backgrounds, we were a little wary of The Scene. I imagined a film line-up heavy on Cineflex drone footage of shirtless cliffhanger dudes. Or skiers shralping the gnar as rave music looped. I’m happy to report I was wrong.

We are excited to announce the OFFICIAL RELEASE of the film, Who Owns Water.

First stop: Telluride, CO. We are an official selection for the 36th annual Mountainfilm Festival! Let us know if you are going to attend, we’d love to meet you and hear your feedback.

Screenings are happening around the US. We will announce them here. We highly recommend going to one of these if at all possible. You’ll get to see it in all its 2K surround sound glory on a big screen.

Who Owns Water will also be airing on Atlanta’s PBA30 in late summer 2014. Stay tuned for details.

We hope to get a film review in The New York Times, of course, but I’m just as proud to hear the thoughts of riverside resident, Paul Holden. Paul is the man who found the Morpheus plaque while fishing below the Buford Dam.

David, so I finally got to sit down with a glass of bourbon and process the days events, and continue to plan our trip. I keep going back to your film in part because it spotlights my back yard and because I think you touched on something that has been sorely overlooked in recent years. I have been aware of the “water wars” for years and I cant remember anyone bringing to light the perspective of the people like us who interact with the river on a daily basis and who in my opinion have their collective fingers on the pulse of this river. Most of what people know or hear about our river is what is in the media and what the person with the biggest budget wants them to hear. I don’t know exactly where I stand on this issue and I live about a mile away from this river I don’t see how politicians and lobbyist who have probably never experienced and I mean really experienced it are able to keep the rivers best interest at heart.

Paul: You don’t know me but last year I found something that I think you’re going to want.

Me: Ok…?

Paul lives near Lake Lanier. He was fishing one day below the Buford Dam and noticed a wood board with “Morpheus” written on it and yellow p-cord dragging behind. He picked it up and held onto it.

Fast forward to this morning. He and his son were scouting online for info about canoeing down the upper Hooch from Helen to Lake Lanier. They came across this photo and post from my first trip down the Hooch in 2009. Through the miracle of modern Internetting, they traced that post to the Who Owns Water film and to my phone number.

I asked Paul why he didn’t just throw it away, either at first or after all this time. Here’s what he wrote me ::

Cant really say, when I first pulled it out of the water and saw Morpheus on it I thought it was unusual and I like stuff like that. It has started many conversations for me and my two sons regarding where it came from who lost it and of course what it meant. A few months ago we were cleaning out our garage and my wife put it in the throw away pile and as I took it out I joked that she would anger the river gods if she threw it away. So circling back to your question, something just told me to hold onto it. This morning when I saw the picture and read the story I knew I had kept it for a good reason!

11:17am
Paul has now downloaded and seen Who Owns Water. His email said he liked it:

Just finished the film! I thought it was awesome! I also feel very connected to rivers there is just something about them that I cant put my finger on or explain you just gotta get in the water!

Download for yourself. It’s now fully available online :: Find it here…